Microsoft Won’t Imminently Replace Steve Ballmer on Board

Microsoft won’t imminently announce a board replacement to Steve Ballmer, according to a source familiar with the company's thinking.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Microsoft (MSFT) won't imminently announce a board replacement to Steve Ballmer, according to a source familiar with the company's thinking. The company's board of directors, currently at 10-members excluding Ballmer, is effective and unlikely to be changed ahead of Microsoft's annual shareholder meeting this fall, that source said.

Ballmer resigned from Microsoft's board of directors on Tuesday to focus on teaching engagements, charitable work and his ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers, a NBA franchise he recently acquired for about $2 billion. The resignation of Ballmer from Microsoft's board caps a year of dramatic change for the software, hardware and IT services giant. In February, Ballmer relinquished his CEO role at Microsoft, paving the way for Satya Nadella to replace him.

At the time, John Thompson was also appointed independent chairman of the company's board of directors, paving the way for co-founder Bill Gates to take a more active role in the company day-to-day operations. Nadella and Gates will not take expanded roles on Microsoft's board as a result of Ballmer's retirement.

Because Microsoft appoints board directors on a rolling basis, and at a cadence of about one new director a year in recent history, the company currently has a fully functional board even without Ballmer. At the end of July, Microsoft appointed John Stanton, a deeply experienced telecom executive who cut his teeth in the wireless industry with Craig McCaw, to its board of directors. In March, Microsoft appointed G. Mason Morfit, an executive with hedge fund ValueAct Capital Management, to its board of directors.